Cardiovascular disease is a major health risk throughout the industrialized world. Atherosclerosis, the most prevalent of cardiovascular diseases, is the principal cause of heart attack, stroke and gangrene of the extremities. It is also the principal cause of death in the United States.
Atherosclerosis is a complex disease involving many cell types and molecular factors (for review, see Ross, Nature 362:801-809, 1993). The process is believed to occur as a response to insults to the endothelial cell layer that lines the wall of the artery. The process includes the formation of fibrofatty and fibrous lesions or plaques, preceded and accompanied by inflammation. The advanced lesions of atherosclerosis may occlude an artery, and result from an excessive inflammatory-fibroproliferative response to numerous different forms of insult. For example, shear stresses are thought to be responsible for the frequent occurrence of atherosclerotic plaques in regions of the circulatory system where turbulent blood flow occurs, such as branch points and irregular structures.
The first event that is observed in the formation of an atherosclerotic plaque occurs when blood-borne monocytes adhere to the vascular endothelial layer and transmigrate through to the sub-endothelial space. Adjacent endothelial cells at the same time produce oxidized low density lipoprotein (LDL). These oxidized LDLs are then taken up in large amounts by the monocytes through scavenger receptors expressed on their surfaces. The lipid-filled monocytes are termed “foam cells,” and are the major constituent of the fatty streak. Interactions between foam cells and the endothelial and SMCs which surround them can eventually lead to smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration, and the formation of a fibrous plaque. Such plaques occlude the blood vessel concerned and restrict the flow of blood, resulting in ischemia.
Ischemia is characterized by a lack of oxygen supply in tissues of organs due to inadequate perfusion. The most common cause of ischemia in the heart is atherosclerotic disease of epicardial coronary arteries. By reducing the lumen of these vessels, atherosclerosis causes an absolute decrease in myocardial perfusion in the basal state or limits appropriate increases in perfusion when the demand for flow is augmented.
The principal surgical approaches to the treatment of ischemic atherosclerosis are bypass grafting, endarterectomy and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PCTA). The latter approach often fails due to restenosis, in which the occlusions recur and often become even worse. This is estimated to occur at an extraordinarily high (30-50%) rate. It appears that much of the restenosis is due to further inflammation, smooth muscle accumulation and thrombosis. There remains a need for methods to diagnose and/or treat atherosclerosis. Most current methods involve evaluation of the arteries themselves or vascular function.